The New World
by tresCREATIONS
Summary: She felt so much pain, her heart was racing telling her she was going to die. But their voices, faint but audible were telling her to keep pushing through. She wouldn't let their deaths be in vain. With a heave she pushed her body up and grabbed the hunter by his arms and began dragging his body away with sweat tricking down her face, "Come on Daryl, don't do this to me." Daryl/OC
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: Her Past**

_She glanced nervously at the clock, every click of the hand made her feel anxious. She was seconds away from finding out if she passed her last undergraduate exam, which would seal her fate of getting into the Neuroscience Institute at Georgia State University._

_"I can't Jerek, what if I didn't get it?" She bit her lip and looked at her brother, he was sitting on her roommate's bed tossing a tennis ball back and forth with her boyfriend._

_"Then you keep trying, you're smart Aaerie. Look at it, you've been waiting all day," She knew it wasn't an option, to keep trying, there would be one of three outcomes; one, she would not meet the mark cut off to take the program and her last 4 years would have been for nothing, two, she'd meet the cut off but not enough to get the scholarship and then her brother and her would have to figure out how to pay for the wallet hungry Masters program or three, she'd pass and get the scholarship and all would be well._

_She took a breath, and logged in._

Aaerie sat by her table staring at the blank screen covered in dust, remembering that a few months ago all she had to do was click and the monitor would shoot to life. Now all that she had in this dorm room was a lot of superficial items that had no significance in the new world. She had no one, just all these _things._

She counted the cans and bottles of water on the floor for the 17th time. It was all she did ever since Michael and Jerek died. It was a matter of time before the food and water ran out and she'd have to figure out how to get through the herd of the undead by the front of the resident building. 4 cans of chicken noodle soup, 2 cans of peas, 3 cans of water chesnuts, 6 bottles of water to be exact.

She walked over to the window and glanced down at the figure staring back up at her. He was stuck, a water sprinkler pole sticking through his chest holding him down.

"Michael...what do I do..." Her dead boyfriend upon sight of her moving figure grunted and began flailing his arms towards her. She was scared and alone and the knowledge of death awaiting her very soon scared her so much that she wanted to join her boyfriend and kill herself. It was the voice of Michael and her brother reminding her that they died so that she could live that kept her pushing forward.

She walked away noticing that his growling was attracting attention from the strays near the building. She sat on her roommate's bed and remembered the easier days, when the only thing she had to worry about were classes and Michael and making sure her and her best friend Leila had time to spend together in between school and work.

Then it began, at first it was a whisper, everyone thought it was drugs, and the stories went viral on the internet, and then a few months later in less than a few hours the news stations were sending out warnings, saying people were eating each other and the people that were bit ending up dying but then they didn't stay dead.

She remembered watching it with a few friends, her roommate, Leila, Michael, her brother Jerek and his girlfriend Emma. They thought it was a joke, and in their drunken stupor made jokes and passed out one by one from the alcohol. She was the first to wake up the next day in the middle of the afternoon when her alarm for work went off. She had reached over to grab her phone and noticed 97 missed calls. She remembered scanning it and seeing various names and numbers and then text messages, so many messages.

_'Where are you?! Please pick up'  
'Aaerie are you guys okay?'  
'They've quarantined off the area, I can't get to you'  
'They have a safety zone in Atlanta. Go to the CDC'_

She remembered those were some of the few messages from Glenn. He was working that night and couldn't make it to their small get together. She had tried calling him back but the line was dead. She was confused to say the least, then she heard the TV and looked over to see a woman standing by a window, "As you can see," the camera zoomed in through the window to the ground where it looked like hundreds of people crowding the door, "there are more and they are multiplying quickly."

She remembered that moment more then she could remember the face of her mother and father. The sounds of police sirens and screaming, yelling and then the groaning.

She grabbed a hand gun and decided to partner it with a small knife and stepped out of her dorm. Her brother and boyfriend had cleared out all the dorms on her floor but she knew there were more of those things below. She walked through the stairway with her flash light quietly knowing that sound attracted them and knowing that she hadn't checked the lobby since they died and knew there could be a breach.

Holding her breath she quietly but quickly descended, her knife ready to attack. When she reached the main floor she slowly opened the door, grimacing at the squeak. To her relief she saw the doors still boarded and the high window being the only means of getting in and out. She checked all the entrances and exits, retouching some nails that were loose. Every time she hammered in a nail with the back of her knife she felt those things slamming on the outside. It sounded like there were hundreds of them, she didn't know if there was any way of her figuring a way out when her food ran out and knew she had to figure it out soon.

Over the next few days she practiced killing the undead that were in some of the dorms, she wondered if they had died slowly and why it had to come to this. She didn't understand why all of them hadn't worked together. Maybe there'd be more than just her surviving, or maybe Jerek, Michael and Leila might still be with her.

She even went as far as unscrewing the plywood from just one of the doors. Luckily it was an old dorm building and the doors were a single opening metal door and she knew the pieces of broken plywood wouldn't make much of a difference holding it together. She waited and monitored every day to no avail. Panic was working its way into her system, she was running out, she was down to 5 cans and 3 water bottles, she felt the effects of dehydration and knew she was going to die. She accepted it, as she stared at the group of undead, she accepted she was going to die slowly and not by being eaten, but by starvation.

* * *

"This is by far the stupidest idea you've come up with!" Rick ran beside Glenn with the rest of the group following close behind them. They were aiming for the big cargo van not too far away. Glenn ignored the sheriff and quickly ran up to the van taking out the unwanted occupant inside. Shane few steps behind climbed into the driver seat and grinned seeing the key in place. He turned the key and to everyone's relief it started up.

"Everyone get into the back n' Glenn you lead the way." They needed supplies and food and Glenn knew the area well, he knew there were a few corner stores and residences. The herd in the area seemed to be much more calm compared to the where the CDC was, and a small part of him needed closure which he wouldn't tell the group, he needed to see if his friends made it out or if he'd see their bodies amongst the crowd.

"There will be more cars in the resident parking lot, we can siphon the gas," They drove cautiously through the area, stopping whenever necessary to raid stores or siphon gas. Glenn noticed that the shelves were mostly empty but they did manage to get some food and water. The gun shop had almost no weapons which he expected.

It was when they were putting some of their supplies away that they heard the walkers. The group looked at the street and in the distance they saw a herd of the walkers stumbling towards them.

"Everyone get in quietly," Rick carried his son and ushered everyone into the back while Glenn and Shane resumed their positions in the front.

"We can't go back Shane, there was a herd an hour drive behind us, it might be better for us to wait this herd out and go forward so we can get out of Atlanta,"

"You're prolly right man, know anywhere we can house up in?"

"I used to go to school here, there's a residence an old one, no glass doors, it's close by here," Shane nodded and followed Glenn's directions catching the attention of the herd, they quickly lost their trail and found themselves in front of the residence Glenn pointed out. Shane reversed the cargo van close to the entrance running over some of the walkers by the door. Daryl and Rick took out the strays with the help of Glenn and Shane.

Everyone got out grabbing their belongings. Daryl opened the door, and the group rushed in and slammed the door behind them. Glenn looked around baseball bat gripped tightly, "It looks clear."

"Rick can check the basement, Glenn check this floor, I'll check the above floors with Daryl n' T-Dog," Shane ordered. Andrea stepped forward,

"I can help,"

"Andrea they have it under control," Dale tried to interject, but stopped when he received a glare from the resident blonde.

Glenn decided to quickly get a head start so he could make his way to his friends' dorms after and had made a move when he heard a gun cock.

"Woah lil lady, I know you ain't pointing that thing at me," Glenn heard Daryl mutter.

"Who are you?" Aaerie stood in front of Daryl and Shane, her rifle directed at the group.

She had heard them, the squeal of tires from her room. It was a heavenly change from the dragging of feet and moans from below. But she remembered her brother's warning, he had told her that people were just as dangerous especially in this world. She believed him, Leila was raped and killed by fellow students in her building right in front of her before Jerek and Michael had shown up, attacking before she herself would have been next.

That was only in the beginning. She had no idea what the new world would have done to people after months of this hell. She cocked her rifle and pointed it at the dark haired man when she saw him reach for his waistline. That split second was all it took for the southerner that had addressed her earlier had what looked like a cross bow pointed at her head.

"Aaerie…"

"Glenn?"

She blinked trying to refocus them onto the Asian man standing a few feet away. She felt like her eyes were playing tricks on her and knew it was entirely possible due to the lack of nutrition and water. She lowered her rifle, eyes glazing over, she couldn't believe this, it couldn't be real. Why would Glenn come back?

She didn't ponder long, Glenn had pushed aside the confused redneck and engulfed her in a tight hug. "Glenn?" She asked again and began shaking, she cried hard holding him close. It was too good to be true, just when she was close to giving up, he had found her.

"Aaerie, I tried coming back for you guys but they blocked-"

"I know Glenn, I'm so sorry, we tried calling you but the lines were down and everything just went to shit so fast…"

"And the rest of them? Are they here?" Glenn's heart stopped when he saw the look of anguish on his friend's face, "Jerek?" Tears pooled over her eyes and she shook her head, "And you…are you alone?" Aaerie nodded, afraid that she would cry loudly if she talked about it. Glenn held her for what seemed like hours. The rest of the group stayed quiet, not wanting to interrupt the emotional reunion.

"You'll come with us…we're moving soon, we're waiting for a herd to pass, and we'll be on the road again in the morning…it's too dangerous here," She had a hard time believing what she was hearing or seeing but nodded, she looked behind him and really saw how big this group was, all unfamiliar faces.

There was a blonde lady with a frown, an older gentleman with a fishing hat was standing beside her. In front of them she presumed was a family, the man in the Sherriff outfit smiled at her holding what she guessed was his wife and child. A black man raised his hand waving at her, "Hi, name's T-Dog," she smiled at him. Beside him was a short haired woman with a little girl. Finally there was the man with a scowl, the one she had turned her gun to earlier and the southerner who had walked past them up the stairs.

"My room is still mostly intact…we cleared my floor, as long as you don't go in room 407 you'll be fine…I had to put all the bodies somewhere," She looked at Glenn who gave her a reassuring smile and held his hand out. She took it and led the group up the stairs not letting go of her friend's hand even to open the door at the 4th floor.

After she directed the group to the rooms, Glenn followed her to her own room. She didn't realize the Sherriff, the angry man and the Southerner followed. Glenn redirected her attention to the three standing by her door, "That's Rick Grimes, the lady with him was his wife Lori and the little boy was his son Carl," She noticed the angry man's face contort when Glenn said the word 'wife', "That's Shane, they were both cops at Cynthiana, Rick was the Sherriff, and that's Daryl Dixon," she fiddled with her hands, unsure if she should shake their hands, when none of them made any incentive she decided to respond with a soft hi.

She sat down on her bed and Glenn sat beside her and took her shaking hands in his own, "Do you want to tell me what happened?" She sighed and pulled him to his feet and walked him to the window and pointed towards something at the bottom. Glenn looked down and shook his head, Michael was reaching up at them, effects of decomposition showing on his once handsome face.

They returned to the bed, and with a burst of courage she opened her mind to the horrible memories that she had tried so hard to block out, "At first it was a bunch of us, the regular group. When we realized what had happened…long story short most of us separated, Kesha included," She remembered her roommate left immediately for her family, "Then it was just Leila, Emma, Michael, Jerek and me," She looked at Glenn and sighed "People changed so quickly…there was a huge group of some male residents that ganged up and tried to take over the building…Jerek obviously was not okay with that, and made an agreement with them, that we stay out of their way and they stay out of ours. Jerek and Michael were always going out to see if they could get supplies and find a way to contact the other's family…"

She closed her eyes, luckily it was just Jerek and her, their parents had passed years ago, her dad naturally, a heart attack and then her mom followed with a rope to the chandelier, "One day, Emma went on a run with them…you know Jerek, never wanting me in harm's way. So it was just Leila and me…those guys were waiting I guess, and as soon as Jerek and the others were gone, they rushed our room and beat us down, gagged us and dragged us to their room…they were laughing, I was knocked out and when I woke up they-" She began crying, it had been so long since she had thought of it, "they were raping her, and she was looking at me," She gasped for air and couldn't stop sobbing, "I tried to get their attention but then someone grabbed me by the hair and began kicking me…and then I heard her stop crying and when I looked over, the guy who had made the deal with Jerek was grinning and holding a hammer…a bloody hammer and she….she was dead, they killed her Glenn…"

Glenn gulped, he wasn't sure he could hear anymore but she continued, "I guess Jerek had come back and was looking for us, he knew we wouldn't just leave, I knew I was next. They had…taken my pants off, and next thing I knew I heard gun shots and screaming. When I woke up I was in my room again and Jerek was standing there with Michael, but Emma she was lying in Kesha's bed and she looked so sick. Jerek and Michael killed them all when they saw what was going on, so now it was just us in the building. When I recovered I found out why Emma was so quiet, she had gotten bitten…it was our first time seeing it, she just got more and more sick and then one day she died. Jerek had to kill her when she came back."

She looked around and saw that the three strangers were listening intently, "Jerek really changed, got angry, said we needed to get out of here, none of us knew how to hot wire a car and his car was siphoned, Michael's car stolen, so he began leaving every morning looking for cars with keys and practicing on hot wiring and when Michael found out he'd follow and Jerek became obsessed with stocking up everything, guns, ammunition, food, water. He did that for almost a month even when I begged him not to, I was afraid that one day they wouldn't come back."

She glanced at the calendar and Glenn noticed a big red X on the 18th and 21st, "I was sitting by the window like every other day watching out with the rifle for them, this day was different, it was quiet, I was wondering where the dead were, and in the middle of the afternoon, I found them, I saw Jerek and Michael running, sprinting, and behind them were so many. There was no way they could make it. Jerek looked at me and they were both just fighting off the few that reached them. I saw Jerek say something to Michael and Michael screamed, but it was too late…I watched my brother toss himself into the crowd and Michael hesitated and a few jumped him but then he was running towards the building again…I didn't know what to do, I didn't believe it, I just watched Jerek disappear…"

Big drops of tears fell on her cheeks, "Michael came in…he made it, or so I thought. He held me all night and all day, telling me that I would survive this. But he looked different, really weak, hiding something from me. On the 21st, he was sitting on the window sill waiting for me to wake up, he was so pale. I asked him what was wrong, he said 'Aaerie, I'm sorry, I got bit, and I'm gonna become one of them, and I can't let you die, not by me,' I told him to stop and come off the ledge, I told him I couldn't do this alone, that I was afraid and that we would find a cure and he would be better, but he just shook his head…told me that he loved me and just pushed himself off."

"I'm so sorry to hear that Aaerie," She was startled to hear Rick speak and nodded her thanks, "Thanks for lending your home to us, you're more than welcome to join us," a cough interrupted Rick, it was from Shane who mumbled what sounded like, 'She'll jus' drag us, we need to talk 'bout this.' Aaerie looked at Glenn who was glaring at Shane. Rick excused himself and pulled Shane out of the bedroom, the remaining three could hear them arguing in the living room.

She sighed, realizing that she may not be welcomed, "Glenn-"

"I'm not leaving you behind Aaerie,"

"But your group…"

"We're never separating again, if they want to leave you, then I'm staying and we'll get through this together." She grabbed him into a hug. Finally feeling hope again after so long.

Glenn had spent the night in Aaerie's room going through photo albums with her. They had packed all her necessary belongings in a backpack. Glenn reassured her that one day when things got better they could always come back for everything. She only brought two pictures. One with all her friends and her, and another of her brother and parents and her, she decided her other belongings and memories would be safer in the dorm then on the road. She packed some clothes, the remainder of her food and water and with Glenn's help decided to bring along things like a toothbrush, pins and blankets. Needless to say her backpack was packed.

Glenn told her that if they decided not to take her along, that they were keeping all the weapons, he warned her that Shane would try to take them. From Glenn's information she found out that Lori and Shane had a relationship when they thought Rick was dead, and Rick had found them again, which explained Shane's animosity towards the word wife. She also found out that they just escape two attacks, one in the forest, which caused many losses, including Carol's husband which she heard Carol was happy to be rid of and Andrea's sister as well as many others. Glenn told her of the CDC, how it was useless and now they were just heading out of town to the countryside in hopes that they can live out the outbreak and wait for help.

"You still believe there's help?" She frowned, accepting a long time ago that there was no help coming.

"We can't give up Aeridne," She smiled, she hadn't heard someone call her by her whole name in so long.

When the sun started coming up, Glenn and her maneuvered to the hallway when they heard the commotion,

"She's dead weight, another mouth to feed, you hear what she been through? She's a mess," Shane was yelling at Rick, Lori stepped forward glaring at Shane,

"You ungrateful, selfish jerk. She gave her home to us, and you plan on taking her weapons and leaving her behind?"

"We need it more than her Lori, I'm just tryin' to protect Carl and you," Rick got close to Shane's face,

"I am protecting them Shane,"

Glenn pushed past her and walked up to the audience, "Well then just go, but the weapons are staying, and I'm staying."

"Don't be stupid Glenn-"

"No, you're the stupid one," Glenn tried to present a confident front to the man, "She's my friend, I'm not leaving her behind."

"I'd rather travel with China man over 'ere," Daryl looked at Shane, some of the other members of the group pitched in, except for Andrea which didn't go unnoticed by Aaerie. She felt horrible, but she knew Glenn would stay and she knew she couldn't be separated from him, not after everything she had been through.

Shane scoffed and stormed off towards the stairs, Rick rubbed his head and sighed, "Yer' coming with us if that's okay with you," Aaerie nodded, silently thanking the sheriff.

Soon they had everything packed in the Van, she was sitting beside the redneck and the little girl named Sofia. Glenn was sitting upfront with Shane and she wished she could see him, but took a deep breath when the van began moving, relishing on the thought that she finally might have a chance to survive.

She closed her eyes remembering the smiles of all those she loved as the van got further and further away from her old home.

* * *

_A/N I decided I really needed my idea out, I've always loved Daryl's character and for years have tried to figure out who I could see with him and I created this character. This is just the tip of the iceberg for Aeridne (Air-ee-ah-neigh). I will be going mostly by the TV show because I haven't caught up on the comic books. I'll use some of the plot and incorporate Aaerie into it. This is not a Glenn/OC at all, there will be no love triangle, they're just friends. Mostly because I wanted to outline her age to around his, which answers her age question. She is around 23. I think Daryl would really develop well with someone around her age or older, just because he has a lot of growing to do, (not Beth's age haha, what were they thinking?!). Anyways, I really hope you enjoy this! I will try and update this weekly, please point out any errors, awkward writing, anything I can fix. I love feedback!_


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Lost**

They had driven a few miles nearby, to Aaerie it was a foreign feeling being in a moving vehicle again. She felt the terrain change just by the bumps in the road causing everyone in the back to hold onto the walls of the van. When the cargo van came to a complete stop she heard Glenn warn them all to stay put and prepare themselves to take down walkers (which is what Aaerie discovered they called the dead) as soon as the doors opened.

The rest of the group and herself grabbed their weapons and stood by the door, when Glenn and Shane opened it she could see walkers coming from out of bushes and behind trees. A crowd but nothing the group couldn't handle. Carol, Lori and the children stayed in the van while the remaining began retaliating.

Adrenaline was pumping through her veins, mostly attributed to the fear. Taking on these things out here in the world were different from opening a dorm room and having a clean blow to their head. Here, she needed to keep a 360 degree look out while multiple walkers attacked at once. And just like that a walker grabbed her arm while she was pulling her knife out of the one in front while fending off the female walker to her right.

"Shit!" She found herself screaming doing everything she could to prevent the walkers from biting into her. She saw Glenn rush forward but then the weight was gone, both the walker bodies were lying on the floor on top of one another with a single arrow sticking out from the head. She looked behind and saw the hunter and nodded her thanks before pulling out her knife and running towards Glenn and went after some more this time sticking close to him.

It felt like ages before finally there was no dragging of feet or groaning. The group stood stationary for a while panting. Aaerie looked at what the group was trying to get to and saw an RV and a motorcycle.

Rick, Dale and Daryl began fueling the vehicles with the empty canisters and siphoning the cargo van, "Much safer in here and we can use it as a look out," Glenn explained, he went on to say that it was their original vehicles minus two additional cars that they decided to ditch near the CDC due to walkers crowding them.

She frowned, it was already a tight space in the Cargo Van, let alone a trailer. It would now be accommodating 4 women, 2 children and 4 men, as if reading her thoughts Lori spoke up, "It's not the comfiest but there's enough room for all of us to sit down, we'll just find another small car on the way."

"Why not keep the cargo?"

"'Cause it's loud, too smooth to stand on top, another big vehicle to worry about and it's eating up the gas," T-Dog offered.

"The grownups let Carl, mom and me use the bed...you can have my spot if you want," Sophia had been staring at her all day, she was holding her breath waiting for Aaerie to answer, Aaerie laughed softly,

"Thank you Sophia, that's so sweet of you but I'll manage," The little girl finally took in some air and grinned at Aaerie.

"Alright let's make a move on," Rick addressed the group,

"One of y'all can ride with me, as long as yer' a good shot," Daryl mumbled, everyone looked at one another, obviously not wanting to ride with the redneck.

Aaerie looked at Glenn who seemed to be thinking really hard, so to avoid the awkward silence that followed his offer she decided that she would take the position that no one else for whatever reason did not want,

"I'll ride with you."  
"I'll come," Andrea said at the same time.

"I'll take rookie, I never seen blondie shoot a gun," was all he said before climbing onto his bike, Aaerie felt Glenn grab her hand and she looked at him, oblivious to the blonde that was glaring angrily at the biker,  
"He's a good guy, just a little headfirst into walkers, I'd kind of rather you stayed with me...you never know when people get separated."

"We'll never be separated again, even if it means I roll off a speeding vehicle," Glenn grinned at her response. He gave her a tight hug and she returned a quick kiss to his cheek before balancing her rifle on her back, she checked her gun on her waist and satisfied seeing her knife safely tucked on the other side of her waist she sighed making her way to the man.

She climbed behind the older man and waited till everyone got into the RV before holding onto his waist. She sighed knowing it was going to be a long, stiff and uncomfortable ride.

* * *

The group had reached some highway by late afternoon, she was startled awake and found herself sleeping against Daryl's back. She was so embarrassed that her blush glowed through her lightly tanned face. She was surprised that she hadn't fallen off and looked down to see the sweater that was originally loosely wrapped around her own waist was now tying her to his waist preventing her from moving.

"Awake?"  
"Uh...yeah, sorry...not a great watch am I?" She thought she saw a fleeting smirk on his face but it was gone before she could take a second look. She looked around and gasped, there was a mass car pileup in the distance and dead bodies everywhere.

"We'll scout 'head n' check if there's a way through..."  
"And we're running out of gas," she guessed they had been travelling for over 6 hours by the sight of the afternoon sun.

They went ahead of the van and realized there wasn't an easy way of getting through, maybe if they moved some vehicles the trailer could squeeze through, not an easy feat but not impossible. The trailer stopped behind them and she heard the door open and people step out, she looked down and awkwardly wondered if she should untie herself which would require her to wrap her arms around him or if she should wait till he untied her. She didn't ponder for much longer, the redneck had quickly untied her from him. She hopped off and wrapped her sweater back around her waist.

Shane whistled at the sight of the cars, "Man there must be shit loads of stuff we can take,"  
"This is a graveyard Shane..." Lori shot at him, Shane sent her a challenging look.

"Maybe if we just get what we need, nothing more..." Carol suggested  
"And checking the cars for some gas would be good," T-Dog said making his way towards the cars.

They soon began looking through the vehicles, collecting food, weapons, water, despite Lori's distaste, even Aaerie felt uncomfortable going through a mass of bodies. Glenn was with Dale fixing up the engine on the trailer. Aaerie found herself looking with Carl, she was opening doors just in case any of them were walkers.

"Penny for your thoughts? Though that won't do much good now," Aaerie looked behind and saw T-Dog and smiled at the darker man,

"Nothing interesting in my head,"

"You seemed pretty spaced out to me, entertain me,"

Aaerie grinned, "Well…just doesn't make sense. Based on the news that was still on before everything shut off, this was happening all around the world right?"

"Yeah, you're right," Out of the corner of her eye she saw Rick make his way closer,

"So the idea of a contained government release of a neurological airborne virus doesn't really make sense because in a span of less than 10 hours there was mass outbreaks all around the world…" She knew she was ranting but it was all she could think about after seeing the dead bodies, nothing was adding up, "The bodies sitting outside…the ones that aren't moving have bullets…knives…you name it to their brains. The bodies outside that are walkers were obviously infected…and we all know that the virus is transferred through bodily fluids. And I feel like it's not the bite that reanimates them, it's the virus that comes along with the bite," She saw T-Dog's look of confusion, she knew she was ranting like a mad scientist, but what really caught her attention was Rick walking away in the opposite direction.

"You know what…never mind," She laughed, she was going to add that the body Carl and her stumbled on had no bite marks, not anywhere she could see, just a bullet to the head but decided unless she could come to any definite conclusions, she should keep her thoughts to herself,

"Uh well…when you figure out a cure, let me know," T-Dog grinned at her and walked off.

Sighing she tracked down Carl's wandering figure and followed him. Lori, Sophia and Carol were nearby too. It wasn't long before she noticed how quiet it was, the sound of Dale's and Rick's voices were not present. There was a sound, a very faint rumble, like a hundred-

"Everyone down!" Rick hissed, "A herd!" Aaerie's head shot in the direction they had come from and in the distance she saw hundreds of them. Her heart raced and she grabbed Carl and shoved him under a car and rolled in beside him, her knife out in her hands. She looked over and saw Lori and Carol to her right. Lori gave her a look of thanks and went back to shushing Carol who was panicking. Her eyes drifted to the direction Carol was crying towards and saw Sophia by herself under a car ahead.

She hated that she couldn't see Glenn or the others and closed her eyes waiting for the herd to get closer. After what seemed like hours, that sound, the sound that made her sick, the dragging feet and groaning was close by. Some bumping into vehicles but none seemed to notice all the living breathing bodies hiding. Sophia kept glancing in the direction of her mother and Aaerie prayed the young girl would stay put.

Carl released a small scream to her left and she saw a walker pressed up against the floor, without thinking twice she shoved her knife into its head and kept it steady not wanting to attract any more attention. Her palms were sweating and her heart was racing, she only pulled the knife out when she didn't see any feet to her left. Lori's face was blanched but relieved.

After over an hour the last of the walkers passed but no one moved, everyone stayed put until they couldn't hear the groaning. But no one moved even after, she heard Carol call out for Sophia and saw Sophia slowly drag herself out but something was telling her it wasn't safe yet, as if reading her mind she saw a walker come from a blind spot and crouch beside Sophia's car. Her soft cry attracted another. With whatever courage was left she prepared herself to roll out when she saw Rick make it to the car just as Sophia had dislodged herself and had made it into the trees with the walkers on her tail. Rick disappeared behind her.

Carol let out a cry and scrambled out from under and ran towards the blocker that divided the forest from the highway. Lori was soon behind her, "Rick will find her." Carl and she followed and through the corner of her eye she saw the rest of the group make themselves towards the Carol.

She couldn't imagine what the lady was going through and decided to just keep an eye on the surroundings as everyone, even Shane, looked distraught. Over an hour passed again and the evening was approaching. Rick hadn't returned and neither had Sophia. The group stood and paced, no one willing to state their fears but she knew they couldn't be standing in the dark, it was too dangerous.

"I think we should either look for them or settle….we won't be able to see anything soon," Some of the men nodded, but a look of panic grazed over Carol's face, "I think they're fine…maybe just lost or might need some back up?"

Daryl, Shane, Glenn and her decided to go search, and with Daryl's tracking skills it wasn't long before they saw him. Rick was pacing around a swamp, sweat pouring down his neck like big drops of rain. He noticed the group, "I told her stay here, I told her if it was clear to keep the sun on her left shoulder and get out.

A silence fell over the group, suddenly she wasn't so sure that they were just lost.

* * *

_A/N I haven't written in a long time, so I'm very rusty. Please let me know if I can make any changes to make it better. I also am reading on writing accents which is why there's not much dialogue with Rick, Shane and Daryl haha.IlysraChance: Thank you so much! That means a lot, I will definitely work on regular updates and hope that this continues to please you. Any feedback would be great! Good and bad :)_


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Faith **

Telling Carol what had happened was difficult. She was frantic and hurt and no one stopped her nor blamed her. She yelled at Rick who held his head down the entire time, guilt completely apparent on his face.

"She's just a child!" Carol sobbed, her whole body was shaking and she was getting paler by the second, "My-my little girl got left in the woods," Andrea went to sit on her right while Lori held her from the other side.  
"We will find her," Rick walked away from the group. Aaerie looked at the sunset, it would be too dark soon to see even their hands in front of their faces let alone finding their way back to camp.

After they had found Rick in the swamp, they decided to split up, Daryl, Rick and she decided to continue tracking Sophia while the others headed back to camp. She couldn't see herself bringing the bad news to Sophia's mother and avoided that encounter.

Daryl was able to track the footprints until it got blurred out amongst other steps, they had even ripped open a stomach of one of the walkers to ensure there was no recent...feedings. As the sun began setting they had no lead anymore and knew they had to head back to the camp.

Aaerie made a beeline for Glenn, ignoring the questioning looks from the others. That's when Carol swept the surroundings and noticed her daughter was not amongst the returnees.

She sighed remembering that moment, the pained howl of a mother losing her child. She sat inside a minivan with Glenn and ate a bag of chips with him, they had reclined the back seats completely and faced each other.  
"What do we do next?"  
"I don't know...first time we lost a child in this mess..." Glenn responded reaching his hand into the bag,  
"We probably shouldn't eat these...packed with empty calories,"  
"We might never get to eat these again,"

_'Never,'_ it hadn't crossed her mind that things might never be the same...or that there was no help on its way. She sighed, accepting the chip that Glenn placed in her mouth.

"T-Dog, you think he'll be okay?" T-Dog had cut himself during the herd on a car door, by the looks of it, it was really deep.  
"Yeah, he's lucky Daryl's not like his brother,"  
"Daryl had a brother? What happened to him?"

Glenn explained what had happened and she felt sad, unlike her brother who had died to protect her, he lost his brother thinking he'd been abandoned by his own group...ass or not, she suddenly had a new form of respect for the hunter, to stick with the group after that, there was no doubt Daryl Dixon could survive on his own, he must've stayed behind to help the group.

Glenn also talked about there being more tension while the three were gone, that Andrea and Dale were fighting about a gun and he thinks Lori and Shane were fighting again, but he didn't hear about what. He said he didn't feel like the group was quite together.

"We don't need to be, as long as _we_ stick together we can get through this," Aaerie smiled reassuring her friend. They devoured every last bit of the bag together, made plans of using this minivan as a meet spot incase shit hit the fan and soon fell asleep beside each other. It was the first real good night's rest either one of them had had in a really long time despite everything that was going on.

When sunlight beamed at the pair through the window, they began moving, trying to avoid the rays of heat, when Aaerie began to sit up right she heard a loud bell. Within moments Glenn and her could hear the others outside and after fixing themselves up quickly they made their way out to join the rest of the group, curious and anxious about the loud noise.

"Glad to see ya' join us princess," Shane snarled at her, she rested her hand on Glenn's arm to stop the young man from arguing back. She couldn't understand why the other cop was dead set on making sure she knew she wasn't welcomed by him. She had tried time and time again to prove that she would be anything but dead weight but she could see that he would not recognize her efforts no matter how hard she tried.

She glared at the man until he turned away. It was no use arguing, they needed to stop the bell before it attracted all the walkers in the area- that was their priority.

"It could be Sophia, it sounds like a church bell, maybe she found herself there, we could all go together to check it out, T-Dog can stay here with Dale, we can all meet back here if anything goes array," they all agreed with the plan Rick put into motion and packed a few items and headed out as a group.

Daryl walked ahead and appeared to be looking for tracks. There were a few walkers in the way but nothing they couldn't handle. After about an hour of walking through the sticks and dirt, they finally reached a small white chapel. She thought it was a weird place for it to be located, no main roads leading up to it.

They heard the bell again and they all went sprinting towards the chapel,  
"Sophia!"  
"Sophia!"

She didn't follow however, her heart sank when she looked up, the bell was not attached to anything manual, she had originally had a bad feeling when she realized the bell was ringing in very precise intervals. She didn't tell anyone about her findings hoping that even if her suspicions were true, maybe just maybe Sophia would hear the bell and try to get to it too.

When Rick came back out he seemed to realize her fears as he paled looking up.  
"Dammit!" He slammed his fists on the wall and grabbed his pistol aiming it at a small gray box on the side. The ringing stopped simultaneously with the firing of the gun.

"She could still come here, she might have heard it too, she might think it's us trying to call out to her," Aaerie suggested, Carol smiled sadly and walked into the chapel followed by some of the others.

Aaerie sighed waking towards a nearby bench, Glenn sat down beside her,

"It's really scary,"

"What?"

"Everything."

"Oh." Glenn put his arm around his friend and squeezed her close to him,

"Sometimes, don't you wonder, what the hell happened?"

"All the time Aaerie, all the time…"

"This crap…it's not supposed to be real, sure…a few crazy people here and there, but strong country fallen apart by some bioweapon,"

"What's a bioweapon?" Aaerie jumped at the sudden question not coming from Glenn, she turned and saw Daryl standing awkwardly nearby. She was unsure of whether he was kidding or not and hesitated to answer. She felt Glenn jab her side, she hadn't realized she was quiet for so long and noticed the redneck turning well…red.

"Uh bioweapons are short for biological weapons. People for centuries and centuries used things like bacteria and viruses to attack one another…especially now, well before, or maybe still now," She shook her head as she confused herself, "kind of sick but it would explain how all this happened…this isn't a normal mutated strand of anything that I can think of…"

"Are ye' some kinda scientist or somethin'?"

"No, I just read…a lot, you know spare time,"

Daryl lifted an eyebrow at her and Glenn snorted, "I don't think anyone in their right mind would include a hobby list of studying and reading on Biological Warfare."

"Shut up," She shoved him playfully, "I have other hobbies."

"Shooting range is not a normal hobby," Glenn laughed, "Or spending all your free time at the animal shelter begging them to let you play with the dogs-"

"You three! We're gon' split up. Me and Shane will keep scoutin' the area in case Sophia comes by and you guys should head back to camp, Sophia might go there," Rick yelled. The three acknowledged the sheriff. It took a while to get Carol moving with them, however eventually everyone got ready to separate. Carl had somehow convinced Lori to let him stay with the pair. They all said their byes and headed into the forest.

She stared ahead as they walked, Daryl led the group and Glenn and she held the rear, "Hear that?"

"No?"

"Exactly," There was clear tension in the air, mainly from Andrea who didn't take her eyes off of Lori.

"Here, just take it!" Lori suddenly came to a stop and flung her backpack off, she reached in and grabbed a small handgun and held it out to Andrea,

"What?"

"I can feel you glaring at me, this is ridiculous, this is why right? Well just take it!"

Andrea quietly took the handgun from Lori who was fuming.

Aaerie couldn't believe how petty the group seemed to be, with the world going to shit, all she had discovered about the group were small insignificant arguments and scandals. She suddenly wasn't so sure about her decision to stick it out with them, feeling that her odds may have been better in her dorm with just Glenn and her.

_BANG!_

"What the hell?"

* * *

_A/N Hey guys, sorry for the long wait. I didn't get any feedback on the last chapter and lost a little motivation. I know this chapter seems rushed. I'm just trying to find a little momentum, especially with the new season giving me some ideas. Please please give me some feedback, what would you like to see? What kind of character personalities can you see meshing with Daryl? Anything!_


End file.
